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1865 American 3-cent piece

Started by villa66, April 22, 2011, 04:05:25 AM

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villa66

The tiny silver 3-cent piece that was introduced in 1851 had a short, fascinating life, and for a few years was perhaps America's most important circulating coin. Like other U.S. silver during the Civil War, however, the little 3-cent piece had mostly disappeared from circulation by 1862. (It was coined until 1873, but never again in circulation quantities.)

Small-denomination paper money was introduced to replace the hoarded coins, with the 3-cent denomination being the smallest of this "fractional currency." It was not popular.

With the end of the Civil War in 1865, the U.S. began to withdraw the 3-cent paper notes by redeeming them with a new and somewhat larger 3-cent coin struck in copper-nickel. (The new coin was almost coined in bronze, but—luckily—it was recognized in time that because of their similar size and color, the recently retired large cents would very likely find dishonest use as bronze "3-cent pieces!") Smart...and fortunate, too, for the miners of nickel who were so well-connected in Washington at the time.

So we have below the new 3-cent piece of 1865, in "white metal."

This first-year example marks the second appearance—I think—of Roman numerals on a U.S. coin. (With the silver 3-cent of 1851 being the first, I believe.) Certainly it's one of America's least "talkative" coin designs. No "E Pluribus Unum;" no "In God We Trust." Not even "Cent(s)." (Which would have repercussions later on—the Mint's successful experience with this "no cents" coin lulled its officials into complacence, and is at least partly responsible for the debacle of the "no cents" Liberty Head 5-cent piece in 1883.)

Mintages of the copper-nickel 3-cent declined as less and less 3-cent fractional currency was presented for redemption. After 1876, perfunctory mintages were the rule (except the outlier of 1881, when more than a million were struck).

The copper-nickel 5-cent had proved very popular, and silver coins suddenly returned to circulation about 1875 or so, which left even less room for the 3-cent piece in American commercial channels. Then in October 1882, what had been the primary justification for the original (silver) 3-cent piece disappeared—the price of a domestic postage stamp was reduced from three cents to only two cents. Production of the 3-cent nickel ended in 1889.

During WWI there was a temporary (20-month) return to a 3-cent postal rate, and in July 1932 the return to a 3-cent postage stamp was permanent. But no new American 3-cent piece appeared, and never has.

:) v.

Ukrainii Pyat

There were some minimalist approaches to legislation ca. 1942 to coin 3 cent coins once more, but they never went anywhere.

The cupro-nickel three cent pieces circulated in dwindling quantities until ca. 1900 - a lot like their 2 cent cousins.  Incredibly though they still occasionally turn up in circulation - masquerading as dimes!  I have heard stories of people getting them in change as dimes.

The 3 cent coin is my favourite USA denominated coin:


The beginning of the series.

And then the end...


Despite the fact that the three cent coin was ostensibly created to facilitate purchasing postage stamps and eliminating the usage of excessive one cent coins the coin never proved popular and after 1873 was only minted in small numbers with the exception of the 1881 dated coins. Of the pieces with small mintages high proportions of the coins seem to have been collected early on as they are usually found in better grades. Curiously the US mint in Philadelphia continued to mint the coins until 1889 when they, the gold dollar, and the three dollar gold coin were discontinued finally. Circulated coins from 1889 are rather scarcer, there were only 18,125 coins minted in the last year of production - and a lot of them seem to have been collected early on, as circulated examples like this one are more difficult to find.
Донецк Украина Donets'k Ukraine

Prosit

That in itself is amazing.

Dale

Quote from: villa66 on April 22, 2011, 04:05:25 AM
...... Then in October 1882, what had been the primary justification for the original (silver) 3-cent piece disappeared—the price of a domestic postage stamp was reduced from three cents to only two cents.

Ukrainii Pyat

The post office did rate decreases to drum up more business.  It had become a lot more efficient with the completion of the Transcontinental railroad - and delivery times started averaging 3 days for the whole nation.  If you look at envelopes that were mailed during that time they were postmarked through the journey.  I have one from 1884 that was sent from the Dakota territory to California - three days from pickup to delivery.  Simply amazing when you think there were no planes or trucks during that time - only fast trains.
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Figleaf

Denominations on US coins are rather odd to begin with. There seems to be an aversion against numbers, with the denomination very often written out, in a few cases in Roman numerals. I have an unsubstantiated theory.

The US had (has?) a hate affair with the French revolution, seeing only the terror and none of the accomplishments. One of these accomplishments is a logical, decimal series of coins with denominations in numerals. To stress its affinity with Burke's Britain and not Paine's Britain, it chose consciously not to have French-like coins, but Spanish-like coins. While the reason to do this was eventually forgotten, the tradition remained.

Here is another thought. The US dogma is the "melting pot", leave your old culture, language and values behind you. The EU dogma is a "union of nations", we will respect whatever your culture language and values are, even if they include bangers :P A denomination in numerals helps those who do not speak the language, ergo denominations in letters on dollars, in figures on euros?

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

Ukrainii Pyat

Frankly during the colonial era and on up to 1857 when their tender status was abrogated by a change of law - Spanish and Spanish colonial coins, mostly Mexican, circulated in the USA.  The denominations of the coins, ie the half dollar, quarter dollar are a carryover from that era and monetary system.  Other denominations like the dime did not catch on until pretty late in the 19th century as a standby denomination.  Indeed a lot of paper money from early in the 19th century was in the denomination of 12 1/2 cents - the equivalent of a Spanish Real or 1/8th of a dollar.

The only other system that was seriously considered during the Confederation era - 1785-1787 was the Mark and Quint system, the Mark would have had a value of 1000 quints. 

Denominations of paper money continued in some areas, notably New York and North Carolina, in British LSD until the War of 1812.

Донецк Украина Donets'k Ukraine

translateltd

Quote from: Figleaf on April 22, 2011, 11:16:30 PM

The US had (has?) a hate affair with the French revolution, seeing only the terror and none of the accomplishments. One of these accomplishments is a logical, decimal series of coins with denominations in numerals.


Hmmm ... the first French coins of the decimal series in the late 1790s read UN CENTIME, CINQ CENTIMES, UN DECIME, and Napoleon's two smallest silver denominations read QUART and DEMI FRANC; whereas the last pre-decimal issues showing Louis XVI said things like "6 D[eniers]", "2 S[ols]" ...

.


Ukrainii Pyat

The USA and France were NOT the first to decimalise, I am proud to say that Russia was during the reign of Petr I nearly 90 years before.
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villa66

Quote from: scottishmoney on April 22, 2011, 10:09:16 PM
...delivery times started averaging 3 days for the whole nation.  If you look at envelopes that were mailed during that time they were postmarked through the journey.  I have one from 1884 that was sent from the Dakota territory to California - three days from pickup to delivery.  Simply amazing when you think there were no planes or trucks during that time - only fast trains.
It surprised me as a boy when I learned that in the old days there actually train-car post offices.

:) v.

villa66

Quote from: scottishmoney on April 23, 2011, 03:12:36 PM
The USA and France were NOT the first to decimalise, I am proud to say that Russia was during the reign of Petr I nearly 90 years before.
Russia does have the honor of being first.

:) v.

villa66

Quote from: translateltd on April 23, 2011, 12:51:21 PM
Hmmm ... the first French coins of the decimal series in the late 1790s read UN CENTIME, CINQ CENTIMES, UN DECIME, and Napoleon's two smallest silver denominations read QUART and DEMI FRANC; whereas the last pre-decimal issues showing Louis XVI said things like "6 D[eniers]", "2 S[ols]" ...
And this while contemporary (decimal) American copper was called out in numerical terms.

:) v.

villa66

Quote from: scottishmoney on April 22, 2011, 11:54:54 PM
Frankly during the colonial era and on up to 1857 when their tender status was abrogated by a change of law - Spanish and Spanish colonial coins, mostly Mexican, circulated in the USA.  The denominations of the coins, ie the half dollar, quarter dollar are a carryover from that era and monetary system.  Other denominations like the dime did not catch on until pretty late in the 19th century as a standby denomination....

Absolutely right--of course--about the Spanish-American 8-reales being used as the basis for the U.S. dollar, but I would place a little more accent on the ground broken by the Mint Act of 1792. (Which also figures into some of what Figleaf identifies--correctly, I think--as a certain inconstancy(!) in the way denominations have been expressed on American coinage.)

It's true that out West the dime had a more difficult time (it was often called a "short bit"), but its main problem in circulation--as was the case with much of the early U.S. coinage--seems to have been insufficient production numbers coupled with the coins' excess precious metal content.

:) v.




Ukrainii Pyat

Quote from: villa66 on April 23, 2011, 05:28:31 PM
Absolutely right--of course--about the Spanish-American 8-reales being used as the basis for the U.S. dollar, but I would place a little more accent on the ground broken by the Mint Act of 1792. (Which also figures into some of what Figleaf identifies--correctly, I think--as a certain inconstancy(!) in the way denominations have been expressed on American coinage.)

It's true that out West the dime had a more difficult time (it was often called a "short bit"), but its main problem in circulation--as was the case with much of the early U.S. coinage--seems to have been insufficient production numbers coupled with the coins' excess precious metal content.


Then there were instances where some coins made for circulation never made sense - like 20 cent piece of 1875-8.  Then really even the quarter dollars were made but not really popular for circulation.  Coins for circulation in the 1870's tended to be the small denomination 1,2,3,5, then 10, and skipped quarter dollar and went to half dollar.  Dollar coins were not popular and when minted earlier tended to be exported.  The 1 cent, 5 cent(Nickel), 10 cent and 50 cent coins bore the brunt of the work - as evidenced by the heavy circulation you see on coins from that era around.  I have never owned the Shield nickel coin of 1866-82, I would like sometime to find nice uncirculated example of the coin for my type set.  The liberty nickels of 1883-1912 I have a bunch of though, and the worn out examples I use as tokens for antique slot machine in my parlour.
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Figleaf

Quote from: translateltd on April 23, 2011, 12:51:21 PM
Hmmm ... the first French coins of the decimal series in the late 1790s read UN CENTIME, CINQ CENTIMES, UN DECIME, and Napoleon's two smallest silver denominations read QUART and DEMI FRANC; whereas the last pre-decimal issues showing Louis XVI said things like "6 D[eniers]", "2 S[ols]" ...

This is of course how the denial trap works, but it is a useful reminder that Britain is also still at least partly in French revolution denial. I vividly remember how Ms. Thatcher commented on the French celebrations in 1989 for the revolution of 1789 by noting that the French revolution wasn't as important as all that, because Britain was still using non-decimal weights and measures. It comically infuriated, rather than amused French editorial writers at the time.

Your typical Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, medieval and pre-French revolution coin has either no denomination or the denomination spelled out. Your typical post French revolution coin has the denomination in numerals, except in Britain (until decimalization) and the US (until today) with exceptions, including exceptions on the exceptions.

That was the argument, though. Not the point. Point being, why this hesitation in doing what really seems to be rational, innovative, helpful, what have you?

In the case of Britain, I think it has to do with the peninsular war and Waterloo. As the French economy foundered under the spending habits of Louis XIV, Britain got relatively stronger, but also absolutely stronger through its colonies. It started waging war on the European continent (Marlborough) and in Asia (Mysore wars). This was an important and new development. Before, the British were mainly fighting each other on land and others at sea.

To a nervous public, the peninsular war therefore had to be justified. There was a good justification. The French army was severely misbehaving, killing, raping, plundering to the point of depopulation of entire areas in Spain and Portugal. Wellington saw it and made use of it by paying for what his armies needed and an active policy of prosecuting (and executing) wrongdoers. However, the official justification was that Boney was a tyrant and a rotter who wanted to unify Europe under him, let everyone speak french, codify laws and give power to common people. If you officially hate the guy, you are not going to imitate him.

The US is more difficult to explain. Let's first establish that there was an aversion of the French revolution by the example of Thomas Paine. Poor Tom was given a rotten treatment in the US, though he was a lifelong defender of the American revolution and an accomplished thinker. However, he had been in the French parliament and that painted him as a supporter of the terreur, although he was allied with the Girondins and himself persecuted and imprisoned. I think the episode shows how a connection with the French revolution went against the grain in the US, though it wasn't as strong as in Britain.

Wikipedia suggests that an additional reason was the anticlerical nature of the French revolution (something Paine agreed with). It sounds weird that a denomination in figures or decimal weights and measures could be regarded as "godless", but this may be the direction to look further into in the case of the US.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

translateltd

Quote from: Figleaf on April 23, 2011, 07:13:03 PM
This is of course how the denial trap works, but it is a useful reminder that Britain is also still at least partly in French revolution denial.


Your scarcely concealed dislike of the British regularly spoils what can otherwise be good stories.  However, my point (proved, I think) is that clear numeric denominations did *not* come about with decimalisation in France, but shortly before it, and that the principle was in no way applied consistently in France for a number of decades after that.

I had forgotten that the first US decimal coppers in 1793 - before the French ones mentioned above - helpfully included the notation 1/100 and 1/200.  A truly revolutionary idea.